Two Quakers from Friends Meeting of Louisville provided Peace Education Program with its initial leadership.  Friends Council on Social Concerns eventually became the fiscal agent and guiding organization. 

In 1985, Peace Education Program conducted its first classroom conflict resolution workshop with  fifth graders from Semple Elementary School in Louisville, KY. 

Today Peace Education Program is at work in 155 schools and 67 community sites through out Kentucky and Northern Indiana.  Gandhi changed the face of India with his commitment to nonviolent direct action.  We are delighted to introduce you to some of the unknown heroes and sheroes who are changing the face of conflict in our community.  They make conflict resolution a living, breathing truth force in our schools, community centers and places of worship.

Meet some of our youth and adult  Faces of Hope . . . . .

"Mediation is awesome” says Luan Nguyen, 8th grade mediator at Southern Leadership Academy. “I got into 7 to 8 fights last year at school and Mr. D. (Durk Davidson, Youth Service Center Coordinator and their mediation coordinator) kept pointing to me and saying ‘You’re going to be one, you’re gonna be a mediator next year.’”

He hasn’t been in a single fight this year. “I keep my mouth closed, sit back, and notice what happened. I don’t even get sucked into it.” His favorite thing about being a mediator is “When I go through the door to mediate, they think ‘Oh, it’s just Lu, we’re not gonna get in trouble. He’ll make it safe to solve the problem.’”

“I’m really good at mediation because I’m self confident and very friendly. I’ve done two mediations this year. In the first mediation, two boys were getting ready to fight. One guy threw something at someone he thought called him stupid. It was somebody else.” They started getting hot with each other when retelling their stories in mediation so Luan said “explain it to me, not him.” Luan helped them explain what happened to each other. “Now I see them at school always being together.”

Luan transferred these same mediation skills to the neighborhood. “ A group of guys were getting ready to assault somebody. I talked them down from it.” Luan paused and said “My street is dangerous.” Why do they trust him to talk them down? “I am them, but older and different. I know what they go through, he said. Weren’t you scared? “ No” he said, “not since I had a gun pulled right up to my head a while ago.”

What makes it possible for him to continue choosing mediation in the face of violence? “My religion” he says. Luan belongs to St. John Vianney parish. “Also, Mr. D. said I can’t be a mediator unless I keep my grades at B’s and C’s. If I get mad during the day, my homeroom teacher sends me to orchestra – the sound of my violin calms me down.”

Debbie Key is also a mediator at Southern. She’s very proud of her successes in helping disputants who stopped being friends because of rumors. Some of the difficult mediations they handle include threats to beat someone up and taking boyfriends. Debbie knows first hand the power of mediation. "One time a disputant was being disrespectful of my partner. I told them to stop and they did.” She knows that some mediations may seem silly to the mediators, but are very important to the disputants. “I had a mediation where two people were fighting over a pencil. We found out that it was one person’s lucky pencil that had a picture of the Great Wall of China on it.” Mediation has helped Debbie “do more than just regular things at school. I pay more attention in class and know it will look good on my records for high school.”

"Getting people to solve their problem is the hardest part of being a mediator” says Roxanne Tesseneer, a 5^th grader at Stonestreet Elementary.  “It’s not that easy, but really fun.  When you first go down to mediate, you’ll be scared.  But my partner helped me deal with it.  It got easier the more we did.”  She liked helping problems not be so bad for people.  Problems they deal with at Stonestreet include people cutting in line, he said/she said and rumors about so and so liking someone.  “Most of the time they decide their friendship is more important than the problem.”  (Pictured are the Stonestreet Elementary mediators.)

25 years ago, Diana Oechsli “thought her principal was crazy” when she suggested they teach peacemaking at Holy Family School.  Today she maintains the school-wide mediation program by training her entire 8th grade class as peer mediators.  While their hormones may scream for them to do the opposite, these eighth graders have become role models for problem-solving and talking to each other with respect.  Diana credits this successful development of eighth grade leaders to the committed use of class meetings and conflict resolution in the daily practice of the school. 

“After all these years, It still surprises me that we can create this oasis in a very violent world.  The kids know someone in authority is listening to them. We have made it safe for them to hear each other.”

Anthony Williams, Recreational Administrator for Metro Parks has partnered with Peace Education Program for 12 years. His motto for their work of resolving conflicts is, “by any means necessary.” Anthony credits this successful partnership with saving lives, and stopping drug use. The communication skills help the staff and youth participants to debrief after shootings or other violent events occur in the neighborhoods. Peace Education Program helped his staff fine tune their conflict resolution skills. He
says that these skills actually help his staff do the recreation part of their jobs better. They learned to think outside of the box and infuse conflict resolution skill building into all of their work, even basket-ball scrimmages.

Working with the Peace Education Program has helped their community centers at every level. Metro Parks and Peace Ed have worked together in large community coalitions, with specific families and extended families, in staff development and youth training.

“Peace Education Program helped us know that conflict is normal and sometimes necessary in any community building process. Learning to handle conflict peacefully lets us grow healthy, strong relationships.”

Derrick Robinson has run the peer mediation program at Englehard Elementary for thirteen years. He is also the security guard for the school. This dual role combined with Mr. Robinson’s passion for his students has created one of the busiest and most successful mediation programs in Jefferson County.  Derrick Robinson trains a group of fourth and fifth grade students to be mediators each year, once the students are trained they handle an average of thirty conflicts a week!

The peer mediation program at Englehard provides a safe place for the students. “Simple fact is, these are children with issues. I’m not to be a judge. Whatever their issue is, it belongs to them.” Derrick credits the program with keeping him connected with his students. “It helps me understand the children more. There is not enough time to talk through everything individually.” Instead, Derrick walks around his office listening to the mediations that are being handled by the young people. Sometimes three or four mediations are taking place at the same time.

Derrick has served on the Board of Directors of Peace Education Program, helped develop conflict resolution programming for bus drivers and is an advocate for peer mediation throughout the district.

“I always have mediators coming back to tell me how important the program was for them. I receive emails from high school students, visits from students in middle school and calls from former students now in college. I’m always pleased to hear that the tools they gained in elementary school are still with them.”

Taylor Ewing, a Coordinator at Kentucky Refugee Ministries, is deeply involved with youth who are immigrants or refugees from other countries. These teens come from countries that may be impoverished, embroiled in civil conflicts or at war with other countries. She works to strengthen their communication and problem solving, to develop respect for themselves, and other cultures. Taylor fosters a safe, nurturing environment, where teens can express themselves, in front of their peers, friends and adults without fear of retribution or retaliation.

One of the greatest difficulties in her job is working with teens for whom opening up and expressing themselves to adults is forbidden, or not part of their culture. In the beginning some teens either refuse to participate, or do so only superficially. Eventually they begin to trust that someone is there for them, who respects their culture and is available to listen regardless of the circumstances.

“I feel successful when I’ve created a safe place for immigrant and refugee teens to let down their guard and interact fully within our program.”

300 mediations are conducted annually at Myers Middle School. Steve Rickner, Youth Service Center Coordinator says, “Ground rules are the key to a successful mediation. It helps highly conflicted youth to listen to what the other person is saying. Both people walk away feeling powerful.”

He feels the most successful with his work when teachers and students talk about the success of some of the strategies they brainstormed.

Steve is delighted when the young people who are labeled as troublemakers use their skills to step in and stop a fight.

Maria Clemons has some clear ideas about the importance of conflict resolution at her school.

Paraphrasing Michael Fullan in The Moral Imperative of School Leadership, Maria Clemons believes that “Conflict avoidance in the face of poor performance is an act of moral neglect.”

As principal of Kerrick Elementary, she must be prepared to address all levels of conflict : with students, staff and parents.

Their C.H.A.M.P.S. program, peer mediation and leadership groups all help build a resilient group of young people. Maria feels fortunate to be leading a strong and committed staff. She believes that schools “always need to challenge ourselves to move up to the next level.” Maria has arranged a staff training in Poverty Simulation conducted by the Coalition for the Homeless. Her goal is to help staff develop a greater understanding of youth and their families who live in poverty.

Clinton Bennett is the Education Director of Louisville Central Community Center. (LCCC) Having been the product of both Beecher Terrace and Southwick housing developments, he has seen firsthand the effects of violence in the community and on youth. According to Clinton, “youth need to learn other ways of dealing with trouble and adversity, rather than striking back. Instead of doing what society expects of them. LCCC tries to instill another message. One of nonviolence and conflict resolution.”

In their “Boys to Men” and other programs, “We try to counter balance in one hour a day the other twenty three hours of violence in music, on TV and on video games.”

Clinton maintains his hope for peace being possible, when youth return for visits, sharing their successes in the world.

Debra Osoffsky is the heartbeat at the center of conflict resolution work at Stonestreet Elementary.

Every class at Stonestreet has participated in classroom conflict resolution workshops, taught by both Peace Education Program trainers and Debra herself. The teachers have participated in a conflict resolution professional development. Family Fun nights have been held for the entire school community. Stonestreet has a group of students Debra believes that the peer mediation program begun at Stonestreet Elementary this year is “rocking”. She says that the buzz around the mediation program is so great the mediators have more requests than they can keep up with. Debra credits the success of peer mediation to “a school community that is so receptive to supporting and empowering kids” and she adds that the peer mediation training “is a dynamite program”.

Naima Abuazza is the principal of the Islamic School of Louisville. This means that in addition to the traditional role of administrator, Naima is the main force behind the conflict resolution work at the school. For many years Peace Education Program has partnered with the Islamic School to provide professional development for the teachers and classroom conflict resolution for the children. In the years we have worked together the student population has doubled and the school has expanded to include preschool through middle school grades. In March of 2007 every student and teacher at the Islamic School participated in a series of four conflict resolution workshops. Naima credits this work with helping the teachers improve their problem solving work with the children. Now, instead of always coaching the students to avoid conflicts, the teachers can better show ways to problem solve. Naima feels like the size of her school aids the success of the program. “Everything taught in the conflict resolution workshops works, because we are small and interested in improving. If we see it, we will use it.” She notices that teachers and children are getting along better.